Adelaide's 2017 Winter Dining: The Food

This month we feature Adelaide’s top winter dining spots where you can find a comforting meal to escape the cold.

The Kitchen Door at Penny’s Hill

The husband and wife team of Tom and Kate Boden are shaping another McLaren Vale institution: The Kitchen Door. The duo took over the restaurant side of Penny’s Hill winery late last year after taking Ellen Street Restaurant to great heights before that.

Chef Tom’s contemporary Australian menu is faithful to the seasons while he utilises the produce from the McLaren Vale region as much as possible with help from gardener and forager Kate Washington whose foraged pine mushrooms are the basis for a simple winter must-try: sautéed pine mushroom, sunflower and pumpkin seed with salsa verde.

Another reason to make the short trip down to The Kitchen Door, just south of the township of McLaren Vale, this season is to taste the confit salmon with beetroot puree, smoked oyster and horseradish – delicious. Tom’s menu focuses on zero waste with a nose-to-tail philosophy at this charming regional restaurant, which is a must-visit this winter.

The Kitchen Door at Penny’s Hill
281 Main Road, McLaren Vale
8557 0840
pennyshill.com.au

The Playford Restaurant

A five-star hotel deserves a five-star restaurant, which is what Executive Chef Kevin Martel and his team deliver at the Playford Restaurant, which takes pride of place on the opulent ground floor of The Playford, MGallery by Sofitel.

With robust winter vegetables and slow-cooked locally-sourced meat on show as part of Martel’s elegant winter menu, to indulge in the complete Playford Restaurant dining experience it is best to try the eight-course tasting menu (which includes poached Tasmanian ocean trout, wagyu beef brisket and free-range truffle chicken breast).

But if you’re dining a la carte and only have room for one main, then the piece de resistance is the delectable duck breast and slow-cooked legs with celeriac and rhubarb chutney. Indulge and enjoy a fine dining experience to remember at the Playford Restaurant this winter.

The Playford Restaurant
120 North Terrace
8213 8888
theplayford.com.au

The Gov

Nothing beats the warm embrace of a pub in winter, especially when that pub in question is live music institution The Gov. With a new chef on board in Rob Yates, The Gov now features a native Australian inspired menu on offer alongside pub favourites and The Gov’s famous wood-oven pizzas. Yates learnt his trade under native ingredient champion Andrew Fielke, working at Fielke’s Red Ochre for more than a decade.

The influence of the Australian bush can be found on The Gov’s Taste of the Outback menu, which features the delicious chargrilled roo fillet with baby bok choy and quandong chilli glaze while the oven-baked barramundi features a tantalising 200g farm-raised fillet served with candied chilli pumpkin mash, choy sum and a verjuice butter sauce.

Everything is made in-house and the origins of the produce are listed on the menu, which means this is a pub menu that delivers what it promises.

The Gov
59 Port Road, Hindmarsh
8340 0744
thegov.com.au

NOLA

Inspired by the cultural and gastronomic melting pot that is New Orleans, NOLA is the perfect eatery and watering hole to visit this winter with its hearty food, dark ales and choice of more than 200 chest-warming whiskies on offer.

With that New Orleans delicacy gumbo due to return to NOLA’s menu this winter, other Cajun and Creole-inspired food to try this season include the moreish fried chicken with spiced tomato sauce, the Cajun vegetarian dish Jack Be Little Pumpkin, the maple and bourbon-glazed pork Po Boy as well as the glazed beef ribs with jalapeno cornbread.

This is the ultimate menu to be enjoyed with some craft dark beer and a smoky bourbon or two this winter. And if you don’t feel like ordering, there is the extremely affordable Feed Me option, which is only $39 (not available on Friday and Saturday nights after 6pm) and includes some of the aforementioned delights.

NOLA
28 Vardon Avenue
nolaadelaide.com

Kin Kin Thai Eatery

Hutt Street’s Kin Kin Thai Eatery is at the forefront of the new wave of authentic Thai restaurants that have added much flavour to Adelaide’s dining scene over the last few years. Delivering traditional Thai favourites and street food delights, chef/owner Noppadol Sophon says he doesn’t westernise his cooking for Adelaide’s palates. And we are all the better for it, as Kin Kin’s flavours are as vibrant as the colourful fit-out of this endearing Hutt Street hotspot.

A popular winter item is the ubiquitous green chicken curry. But Kin Kin doesn’t dish up a generic version. Their chicken curry with Thai eggplant and bamboo shoot bursts with spices and flavour from the secret homemade green chilli paste, a recipe Sophon learnt while working in Thailand.

Other dishes to try this winter are the tord mun pla (fried fish cakes) and the excellent yum ma kheua (grilled eggplant salad with minced chicken, prawns, dried shrimp, soft boiled egg, chilli and lime dressing). Tip: make sure you stay for dessert and order the kanom co, a simple and authentic coconut and palm sugar delight that is one of the best desserts in town.

Kin Kin Thai Eatery
Shop 4/242 Hutt Street
7073 0328
kinkinthaieatery.com.au

FINO

Now settled in the Barossa Valley, Fino remains this state’s favourite regional dining escape despite relocating to their much bigger Seppeltsfield space two years ago from Willunga in a seemingly seamless transition.

This winter, head chef Sam Smith delivers a produce-driven menu to celebrate the best of Barossa and beyond that will see Fino return to the ethos of its Willunga past with smaller share plates as the team moves away from a la carte. Some of the dishes to try this season include the roast bone marrow with chargrilled Bunyip oyster mushrooms and slow-cooked beef brisket with Brussel sprouts and anchovies.

Southern Blue fin tuna from Port Lincoln is served with sprouted lentils from Yorke Peninsula, chilli oil and lardo from Port Lincoln’s Boston Bay Smallgoods in a delicious celebration of this state’s produce. Fino was named one of the 50 Hottest Restaurants by The Australian last year; dine there this winter to see why.

Fino
730 Seppeltsfield Road,
Seppeltsfield
8562 8528
fino.net.au

Adelaide’s Winter Dining is a promotional feature from The Adelaide Review

Photography: Sia Duff